Olympus E-P1 pros:

+ Outstanding color accuracy
+ Nice ‚retro’ design
+ Good sharpness
+ Excellent white balance
+ LCD clearly readable in bright light
+ Good menu structure

Olympus E-P1 cons:

- No viewfinder, or built-in flash
- Poor noise performance
- Slowish autofocus
- Limited lens selection

The design:

Olympus E-P1 measures 120.6 x 69.9 x 36.4 mm and weighs 335 grams. Although the camera has a very traditional look it has all the goodies modern technology can provide. The front of the Olympus E-P1 features the Micro Four Thirds lens mount and above it he stereo microphone. Also on the front is the lens release button, self-timer lamp and textured grip. The back of the camera houses the 3-inch LCD screen, mode dial, speaker, 4-way controller and plenty of other (customizable) buttons. The left side of the Olympus E-P1 is completely bare, whereas the right side houses the USB/AV connector along with the HDMI jack. The bottom features the tripod mount and the battery & memory card port.

Performance:
Olympus E-P1 has a wide ISO range (100 – 6400) which is a good thing considering its noise issues. The overall resolution of the 12 megapixel photos taken with the Olympus E-P1 is really good. There is little chromatic aberration and the distortion is quite low. The image stabilization proves useful for shooting slow shutter photos. Also the white balance present as well as the auto mode work really well. The biggest issue with the cameras performance is the rather slow continuous mode which shoots only almost 3 frames per second.

Image quality:
The Olympus E-P1 has truly remarkable color accuracy despite its few color modes. You can manually adjust the saturation, contrast and sharpness which can further enhance the images. The biggest issue with the camera seems to be the highish noise levels. Textured are captured very well, the resolution is outstanding and if you use noise reduction the images look great. The automatic white balance and color modes make it really easy to take nearly perfect photos with the Olympus E-P1. Generally, if you don’t plan on shooting in high speed continuous mode you won’t find a better digital camera than Olympus E-P1 in 2009.

Video quality:
Unfortunately, the Olympus E-P1 does not perform as well with videos as with still photos. Color accuracy is worse and the noise is always present. And although the Olympus E-P1 can record up to 1280 x 720 at 30p frame rate is can hardly substitute a camcorder.

Selected Olympus E-P1 features and specifications:
Resolution: 12Mp
Sensor size: 17.3×13.0mm
Sensor type: Hi-Speed LiveMOS Four Thirds
Image size: 4032×3024
Aspect ratio: 4:3
Focus system: Contrast detection AF system
Focus points: 11
Crop factor: 2x
Lens mount: Micro Four Thirds
File type: 12bit RAW, JPEG
Sensitivity: ISO100-6400
Storage: SD, SDHC
Focus types: Area, single, face detection
Metering system: TTL open aperture
Metering types: Digital ESP, centre-weighted, spot
Exposure compensation: +/- 3EV in 1, ½, 1/3 step increments
Shutter speed: 60sec-1/4000sec
Frames per second: Approx. 3fps
Flash: External only
Flash sync speed: 1/30sec-1/180sec
Image stabilisation: Sensor shift type, one or two dimensional movement to 4EV steps
Integrated cleaning: SSWF
Live view: Yes, Contrast detection system, 100% field of view
Viewfinder: Optional accessory
Monitor: 3in Hypercrystal LCD, 230,000dots (73,000px)
Interface: USB 2.0, HDMI
Power: Li-Ion battery

Other recenelty reviewed digital cameras:

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, Kodak EasyShare Z950, Nikon Coolpix L100